re was a general feeling for taking legal
advice: and it was set aside solely on purpose to raise the question
about legal consultation. _That_ was negatived by vote: and I then
claimed the consideration of the question which we had put aside for
it. By the influence of H. Warburton, M.P., this was denied. I wrote a
letter to be laid before the Meeting on July 28th, when I was
necessarily absent, urging my claim: my letter was put aside. I
determined never to sit with Warburton again: on Aug. 2nd I intimated
to Lord Burlington my wish to retire, and on Aug. 29th he transmitted
to the Home Secretary my resignation. He (Lord Burlington) fully
expressed his opinion that my claim ought to have been allowed.--On
June 9th, on the occasion of Prince Albert's state visit to Cambridge,
knighthood was offered to me through his Secretary, Prof. Sedgwick,
but I declined it.--In September, the Russian Order of St Stanislas
was offered to me, Mr De Berg, the Secretary of Embassy, coming to
Greenwich personally to announce it: but I was compelled by our
Government Rules to decline it.--I invited Le Verrier to England, and
escorted him to the Meeting of the British Association at Oxford in
June.--As regards the Westminster Clock on the Parliamentary Building:
in May I examined and reported on Dent's and Whitehurst's clock
factories. Vulliamy was excessively angry with me. On May 31st a great
Parliamentary Paper was prepared in return to an Order of the House of
Lords for correspondence relating to the Clock.--With respect to the
Saw Mills for Ship Timber: work was going on under the direction of
Sylvester to Mar. 18th. It was, I believe, at that time, that the
fire occurred in Chatham Dock Yard which burnt the whole of the
saw-machinery. I was tired of my machinery: and, from the extending
use of iron ships, the probable value of it was much diminished; and I
made no effort to restore it."

Of private history: "In February I went to Derby to see Whitehurst's
clock factory; and went on with my wife to Brampton near Chesterfield,
where her mother was living.--From Apr. 1st to 5th I was at
Playford.--On Holy Thursday, I walked the Parish Bounds (of Greenwich)
with the Parish officers and others. From Apr. 19th to 24th I was at
Birmingham (on a visit to Guest, my former pupil, and afterwards
Master of Caius College) and its neighbourhood, with George Arthur
Biddell.--From June 23rd to 28th I was at Oxford and Malvern: my
sister was at Mal